Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I find it quite odd that at schools here in America where students learn about the constitutional rights, like the right of free speech and the right to no unresonable search and seizure, that these rules are bent and broken by the administration to the point where they are essentially nul and void.

An example is that I rescently discovered that my boarding school uses a program called "AIM sniffer" to log the AIM messages of all the students on our intranet (both incoming and outgoing). This is a clear violation of both the first and fourth amendments, and even thought cases like this have been brought to court, it still persists.

Another one is the locker inspections that sometimes occur at high schools, where even if there is basis for the search. While this can catch potential crimes or other actions, what about those innocent students who are just bystanders?

I want to know what is the opinion of the CD community on this issue (yes i know it had nothing to do with robotics, but i feel it is a resonable question concidering how many of us are or were students at one time).

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

First of all, the chit chat thread is precisely that: you can discuss whatever you desire :). We've had a lot of stuff here in the past few months weeks whatever, much of it not pertaining directly to robotics. Thanks for bringing up this issue.

My school also has rules on locker searches. The question is what is more illegal: bringing a gun to school, or getting a locker searched? You'd think it's common sense not to bring a gun, but some people won't realize that. The same may apply to drugs and other paraphanalia (spelling?).

As far as the AIM sniffer goes, you may want to check on your school policy, and the stuff you and your parents probably signed at the beginning of the year. Since I know you go to a school where you also live, it may be legal to monitor AIM. However, the way you describe it seems a bit extreme. If you signed it in the school policy, you're pretty much stuck.

I think the locker issue is acceptable as far as searching goes, but only with a warrant/permission. I feel it should be just like searching someone's house or car: you need a warrant to arrest or catch them on anything. I feel that random locker searches are inappropriate, because well, I just don't feel comfortable knowing that they had no reason to go but just want to get me or someone else for something.

And yes, I read my highschool handbook. :)

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

My school rulebook specifically bans ninja stars and nunchaku.

As far as the locker searches go, I dont think its a massive inconvience for them to search a locker, especially since, if you've got nothing in there that is illegal, you wont get in trouble, and they aren't going to ruin your day by checking. At least, I hope not. :-p

Genia pretty much said it with the Aim sniffer.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

The big SCotUS case in this matter is New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985). The key idea in the decision is that school officials may conduct searches under "reasonable suspicion", which is considerably less than the "probable cause" needed by police in other situations.

Random locker searches are allowed due to some slick maneuvering in that they are claimed to prevent rules violations rather than catch offenders. In Zamora v. Pomeroy, it was deemed legal for drug sniffing dogs to sniff around lockers and cars to not be considered a "search". However, if the dog detected anything, that provided the necessary "reasonable suspicion" for a search.

As far as the AIM sniffer, there are several different ways to use public key encryption over AIM, which would solve your immediate privacy concerns.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

With the lockers, I don't see any problems. You are using their property. If you don't like it, you don't have to have a locker.

About AIM, I have to go to class so I don't have enough time to write everything. :)

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I know that schools in Fairfax County, VA have signs posted as you enter the parking lot that say that by driving on that property you are allowing school officials/police to search your vehicle for any or no reason. There is a thing about lockers in the Students Rights & Responsibilities (SR&R) book that they require everyone to sign. I never did sign it my junior or senior year...and somehow they didn't come looking for me to sign it like they do with most students. But I do agree that the locker belongs to the school and they are letting you borrow it, so they may search it if they want to.

However, I do hate these policies. I believe that everyone should have the rights preserved for them in the Constitution, whether they are a student or not. The incident that happened in GA last year or the year before was IMHO unnecessary and uncalled for. If you are unaware, police raided a high school before classes started with sniffer dogs. Some of the cops had weapons drawn too. They swept through the school, forcing students to get on the ground and against the walls. They used the dogs to sniff all the lockers and students and their backpacks and found absolutely nothing. I do not think that this incident was within reason on the part of school officials and the police involved.

Overall, I am a big advocate for personal rights that are given in the Constitution. I could ramble on about personal rights, but I will try to keep this thread on topic.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

And the AIM sniffer may well be allowable. After all, it is their network.

Of course, if I ruled the world the students would know full and well that all AIM conversations on the school's network can be logged and published publicly. A 21st-century version of the "all notes passed in class can be read"

On the flip side, there is a simple solution--don't use AIM.

<Edit>And by the way, that raid was in South Carolina. Goose Creek High, IIRC.</edit>

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

That was not the one that I heard about. I am positive that it was in GA. There may have been another raid in SC that I did not hear about though.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

In California certain constitutional rights are forfeited the minute you step on school campus. Mainly the ones you already mentioned.

It's the school's job to keep you safe. That's been deemed important enough for you to sacrifice those rights. I'm against things like the Patriot Act, but I really don't see the problem here. What do you have in your locker and/or car that you don't want to see? If you don't have anything allowed, what's the problem?

Now what does get me pretty hacked is when people get expelled for things like having been "caught" with a pocketknife, multi-tool, etc in their cars, on school campus. Things like that are an example of not using common sense to interpret rules.

And on the network issue, you're using their network, it's a private network, and they determine the rules. Just like you have freedom of speech, but you can't just start cursing everyone out here on ChiefDelphi, because it's ran by a group of individuals that make their own rules. Rules which very well may impair your freedom of speech, but that's just too bad.

Also, this is almost backwards thinking, but that raid could have had a beneficial effect--Who in their right mind is going to bring a gun or weapon on campus after they just had the SWAT team storm the school and hold them at gunpoint? :ahh:

Maybe if people actually respected(some) laws and rules, we wouldn't even be having this discussion
$0.02

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I've seen discussions like this before and I'm just going to state what I think about these topics.

I think the school has every right to search "THEIR" lockers, with "their" being the key term. People always argue that the lockers tend to be their own personal property/space but you have to remember that the school owns the locker, not you. It is also your choice to use their locker in most situations, so if you have something to hide, hide it somewhere else.

I've never heard of schools using any type of "AIM Sniffer" but they also discouraged the use of any chat programs at my high school. I would also have to agree that the school has the right to log your conversations since it is "their" network.

Anyways, this is just my personal opinion and I would not have had any problem if my old high school wanted to search my locker or log my conversations or monitor what websites I looked at or anything similar to this.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Our school uses the drug dogs to search the lockers and the parking lots of our school. Not only that they try to cover it up by saying there is an "intruder drill" which made all of the students sit on the floor and stay low with the lights out and no one could leave. We sat there for at least 2 hours, which was useless because they found nothing.

But if the dogs did detect something in a locker then the admin would have probable cause and then could search the locker without consent, the same with the vehicles outside. I think

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Just a little addition:

Being on your school's network, its not just a "Its my network and I can do what I want with it". You also have to remember that on whatever network you are connected too, something leads back to your provider. While not the same thing with companies providing internet service, if say, your school gave you access through their network and unknowingly allowed you to post "hateful" (You know what I mean) things, it could(however unlikely) be misunderstood as their support for whatever you said. Kinda covering their butt thing :-p

Important about those locker and/or car searches is that the school isn't just looking to bust someone, they're looking out for however many students could be affected if one did have something dangerous on campus.

In my own arguments pre-emptive defence, the difference between this and, say, searching your house, is there are only so many "personal" things you could possibly have in your locker, compared to your home. :-p

*edit*
Humorous note: A drug dog once dug into a girl's bag, only to eat her peanutbutter and jelly sandwich :D

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I'm going to sound like an old fart for posting this, but.....

Back in MY day (1995), when I was a young whippersnapper, we didn't even HAVE Internet access at my high school in my podunk farmer town of Kinsman, OH! I often wonder why schools permit the use of such chat tools during school hours. I think learning, listening to the teacher, taking notes in class, studying during downtime, and doing my homework are all activities that should supersede chatting with my friends, sending email, taking naps, or (gasp!) browsing ChiefDelphi during school hours. AIM access is not something school districts are obligated to provide their students. I'd feel fortunate that your school even allows you to use AIM in the first place and deal with whatever restrictions they place upon the use of the software.

And yes, the school owns the lockers, so I feel they have the right to search them if they have reasonable cause to do so. Random searches seem a bit pointless, and I do think making kids lie down on the ground at police gunpoint is extremely uncalled for, however.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

And who owns the school? ;-)

Not everyone who values their civil liberties "has something to hide". It's a slipperly slope indeed...

I agree Kyle, but for subtly different reasons. It is a public resource as much as any. Taxpayer money pays for that connection, and if officials elected by the taxpayers have deemed you can't use IM, they are acting on behalf of the people who paid for that connection. If you have a problem with it, attend some school board meetings.

IANAL but if I recall correctly it's legal to bring a gun to school in many states (in your car), if you have a gun rack and are otherwise obeying the law. I believe this is the case in Virginia.

Well, I'm no good at solving social problems, but I can usually fix issues with technical wizardry. The most obvious solution is to use encryption (Google for info, it's very easy with AIM and GAIM). If you want to go a step further, I could whip up a little program for you that logs on to two AIM screen names (one of them being yours and the other being one set up for this purpose) and sends text back and forth randomly in the background. Get a bunch of people to run this and they'll have too much data on their hands to sort through. Oooh, and you could even make it statistically identical to real AIM convos with a markov algorithm, foiling their attempts to read through it.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Nope. It is illegal to bring a gun to school in Virginia under any circumstances. However, if you bring one to school in the trunk of your car, there is no reason for them to find it, thus not getting in trouble for it.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Oh really?

see here! I was suprised too!

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Ok, so in Virginia you can have an unloaded gun, in a rack, in your car.

How many people with guns in their cars (outside of Texas) have gun racks, and keep their guns in it unloaded? How many students, for that matter?

Odds are if a student gets caught with a gun, they're going to have a pistol sitting in their glovebox or something. And it's probably loaded.

For all practical purposes, you can't legally bring a gun to school in any state.

And while we're on the topic, that's absolutely ABSURD that you can even have a gun in a rack in your car, unloaded or not. Johnny pisses you off in English class, and you go to your car during break, grab your unloaded gun... and what do you do? proceed to load it and go shoot Johnny. Yes an extreme case, but guns have ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS at schools unless it's in the holster of a police officer

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

He attends a private school. Taxpayer's don't pay for private school.
It's their lockers, their internet, their parking lot, their property. Don't they have the right to know what is happening on their property?

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I beg to differ, there have been times where I will park off of school grounds and have a rifle or shotgun in the back of the car so I can go hunting right after school instead of driving 30 miles home, or so I could hunt on the way home. They may have their rules but there are ways to follow the rules and get your way. Remember the 2nd amendment used to be a safeguard against tyranny, do not forget it.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I'm sorry, I didn't catch that! :ahh:

Is this a boarding school?

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Yet more proof that humans are their own worst enemy; "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

Slightly more on topic (and keeping with my theme of quoting), I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say that (slightly paraphrased) "Those who give up a small amount of liberty for a small amount of safety deserve neither." The thing is, if they start taking away rights, it can easily become a domino effect. Let's say that a school can search a backpack of any person it deems could potentially start a problem to keep the place safe. Sure, we're only sacrificing a little bit of privacy in a public place, and it seems like a good cause. Now what happens when they start automatically searching backpacks when the students come in. You think that okay, we've only sacrificed a little (keep in mind this is relative to the first part of this), and we may be a little safer. Now, a completely sane and not weapon-toting person is thought to have something dangerous. Because of the previous rules, now there's a new rule that they can hold the person at gunpoint, and it doesn't seem like much... until you step back and look at it from the outside (which IMO, is the main problem with the Patriot Act, but that's another discussion). The same holds true with searching cars (which the schools have absolutely nothing business with). And what could a person be hiding that they don't want anybody to see? I can think of a few, among these are medication you don't want others knowing about (and this could technically bypass the lawful doctor/patient confidentiality), gym clothes (especially when it comes to those hormone bombs known as freshmen), sports equipment (which can easily be misconstrued as a weapon), valuables, cell phones, perhaps a game boy, CD players, I-Pods (all things which are legal to carry, but schools like taking away at first sight, even without them being on), magazines (which someone will attempt to find immoral no matter what it's about), etc. I think you get my point in that there are many things people like to keep to themselves that are perfectly legal (especially when you consider humans are quite possessive).

Slight tangent: a few years ago, there was a large mock trial with a lot of Rhode Island schools involved on this topic. Using every aspect of the law (mostly at the state level), the results were quite simple: lockers are school property, and thusly anything in them can be searched (for the record, I just found it easier to carry everything with me). However, backpacks are not school property. While on the person, they are personal property, and would need a warrant from a judge to search via the fourth ammendment (note that this changes once they enter the locker). Same with cars, though public highway laws still apply in the parking lot. Just a small FYI from my corner of the country.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Read this. It should prove useful to the conversation. It is the groundbreaking case that I was taught in high school about constitutional rights in high school.
New Jersey vs. TLO

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

IMHO - if you go to a school - they may do what ever they want RELATING to what you do IN school and any of your property while in the school's boundaries.

Look at the Detroit school I went to for a few years - you where sent through a metal detector and patted down and than they would search any bags/books/ect. even before you entered the school. Personally - I'm all for it...

(This was during Jr. High also)

(On males/females that has had a violent past they would request strip searches periodically)

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

:-p

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

You have none...

Bethel School District #403 v. Fraser

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier

New Jersey v. T.L.O.


But other good reads, not all against your rights, but they define them...

Board of Education of Westside Community Schools v. Mergens

West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette

Tinker v. Des Moines School District

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Corry, let me invite you to J.R. Tucker High School during the build season. You'll be surprised. I agree with you, it's stupid rule, but still...

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Actually if the school is not stupid then all you could probably could run is the java version of aim.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

If they are truly innocent, there's no reason they'd get in trouble then. I'm all for it cuz' for one thing, I live in Richmond VA, which is up there in like, the top 20 cities in america w/ the highest crime rate. (seriously, there's a homicide like, every day)

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

well, the lockers are the school property and the AIM is being used through the school network, im sorry to say that everything seems to be legal. I still dont think the aim sniffer is right because i actually feel safer talking on aim than i do in the lunchroom at school. if aim is 'tainted' at ur school, how are going to be able to have a private conversation? unfortunatly, i can see a side for the school. they probably just have the sniffer set to keywords like 'drugs' and so on. you chat may be recorded, but as long as it doesnt contain words like that you should be fine. if u need to, there probably is an encryption software for aim.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

A few comments to this thread:

My old high school, where my brother attends, recently disallowed students wearing hoodies of any sort, stating that firearms and drugs are too easily concealed.

They also recently tried to ban students from wearing the color pink, citing it as a gang symbol.

Keep in mind that this is one of Hammond's four PUBLIC high schools. The other schools do not have this ban.

What do you think? I'm thinking protests.

/edit: should I also mention that when I was in 8th grade, my high school was featured on MTV because it automatically suspended any student with a hair color other than 'natural' (normal redhead, blonde, brunette, or black hair)? sigh.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I think that is outrageous. I know they have banned certain things in my previous high school because they can be gang signs (bandanas, hats, etc.), but never a whole color. And the hoodie thing is completely ridiculous. I would be in there fighting that, I would wear a hoodie everyday and take that to the school board and court if necessary. They have gone too far.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I can see the point about hoodies and gang symbols but banning an entire color is just plain stupid. I guess if they ever have school uniforms there won't be any pink in them. ;)

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

You can tell who is wearing the gang symbol pink and just wearing pink because it's pink. The people who are wearing pink as a gang colors look like they tried washing clothes for the first time. It's the shade of pink that you get from bright red shirt that bled into a white t-shirt. Im not sure whether to laugh or be afraid at all those people wearing those shirts.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

The whole hoodie thing is messed up. I am at college now and even in HS i never wore a coat unless it was REALLY cold. So I always wore a hoodie or sweat shirt. I just wore it all day and took it off if I got warm.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Actually, in numerous instances the court has decided that schools have a compelling interest in the well being of the students, and that the school itself acts in loco parentis.

Just as your parents can infringe upon certain constitutional rights, so can the school.

For instance, a few years back there was a case in which a girl had been seen smoking on school grounds. When the administrator went through her purse, they found, besides cigarettes, marijuanna and a list of people she'd been dealing to.

Now, had this happened off school grounds, and had the person doing the search been searching for cigarettes only, she could not have been prosecuted for the marijuanna because it wasn't the item that was being searched for.

The most famous phrase from Tinker may be that "students rights do not stop at the schoolhouse door", but that doesn't mean that the rights cannot be modified.

It's not the school--it's the courts, who have, in decades of case law, given schools the privilege to infringe upon the Constitutional rights of students if "necessary".

--Petey

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

For my answer to this, see my previous post.
How is that a violation of those amendments? They are not infringing upon your speech. It is not unreasonable search or seizure, either. You are using the school's network--they may do what they darn well please on their own property!
Then what have they to hide?

Again, the point is that schools have a compelling interest in that. Read up on some case law to see how the courts have interpreted it. Try www.findlaw.com

My opinion is that schools have the ability to do anything the courts say they can do, and that I will abide by the opinion of the court.

--Petey

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Wait, so say I get stopped by the cops at a checkpoint for drunk drivers on a saturday night. They think they smell booze on my breath, and Im acting drunk, and the car smells like alcohol, so they ask me to get out and search the car.

Now they don't find any alcohol, but they find a few bricks of cocaine. They can't prosecute me for the cocaine? The hell they can't

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

First of all, off school grounds the girl would not have her purse searched because smoking is not illegal and there is no reasonable cause for a search. But if they had reason to search her for anything, then whatever they find is fair game. If they search her for a weapon and find drugs or as Cory said, stop you for drinking and find cocaine, then you are screwed for having the drugs/cocaine.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Depending on the situation, no, they cannot.

We were talking about this the other day in law class, and in last year's Mock Trial competition, this was the crux of the case.

They think they smell booze on your breath, and you're acting drunk, and the car smells like alcohol, they can do a plain view search of your car, and even arrest you for driving while intoxicated, but they can't search the rest of your car unless you give them your consent.

If they search it anyway, anything they find cannot be used against you in a court of law.

If they detain you and wake up a judge to get a warrant signed--unlikely--then they have to specify exactly what they are looking for. If their warrant said they were searching for illegal firearms, and they found cocaine, you could not be prosecuted for the cocaine because it was found in an illegal search. It was not specified in the warrant, and you did not give consent.

--Petey

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

The girl was 14. Should have mentioned that.

Nope.

Not unless the contraband was in plain view or if you gave your consent to have the car searched.

:D

Gotta love the vagaries of the law.

--Petey

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

It doesn't matter if the girl is 14 or 25. The cops could not search her off school grounds. And if a cop searches you for ANYTHING legally and finds something other than what he was looking for that is illegal you can get prosecuted for it. If the cop illegally searches you or your car then whatever he finds will not hold up in court.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I'll just add in a couple anecdotes to this conversation.

First of all, I have a breach of my own for an example. Two years ago, a teacher who I will say is now spending some quality time in an institution, called in a bomb threat to the school. The school called a fire drill, and all 4,000 students and teachers stood outside for 2 hours. When we returned to class to get our backpacks, we found that my teacher's door was unlocked (she had locked it when leaving) and many of our bags had been noticably moved and apparently searched through. In this case, the school did, in fact, search through every students' private property. Searching through the rooms, fine, its their property, but the students', its not.

Also, many items of clothing have been barred from my school, including any and all sports jerseys, red/blue shoelaces, red/blue shoes, etc. Now, we are also in Socal, and not the good version you see on TV, and there are many gangs (and a big problem last year concerning large gang brawls) at school, and a gun is found on a student 1-2 times a month. So perhaps some liberties are validly broken, but I am against many of them.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

They could only do a Terry stop, true, but they could detain her for smoking as an infraction.

I misunderstood you.
If the search was legal, yes. If it was in plain view, or if you gave your consent.

I think we agree, we're just saying different things. I was disagreeing with Cory, 'cause he said that an illegal search could result in stuff that would hold up in court.

--Petey

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

The girl smoking can not be detained unless they can tell that she isn't 18, which they usually won't do becuase it is really hard to prove and the girl is not required to carry an ID while smoking. So as long as she doesn't look REALLY young, the cops wouldn't usually do anything. And about the legal searches, that includes a search with a warrant. Even if the warrant says that they are looking for something specific, anything they find can be used to prosecute you, even if it wasn't what they were looking for. Other than that fact, I believe we agree.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

I'll see if I can dig up some case law on the warrant thing. I'm pretty sure that's the case--my argument, that is.

--Petey

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Um, it was a bomb threat, what do you expect them to do?

They had to cover all angles. Someone said a bomb is in the school. You can't just dismiss that. 9 times out of 10 a bomb threat is fake (probably more than that, really), but it doesn't bother me at all if they have to go through people's backpacks to make sure that there is indeed no bomb on the campus.

If a bomb went off because some local police force didn't search backpacks, everyone would be screaming bloody murder and demanding that all bags be searched any time there was a threat.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Actually if they use a drug dog then they can convict you. Even if you get caught speeding and they use a drug dog then you can be convicted. As long as they don't go inside of the car and use a drug dog then you can be convicted. The outside of your car aparently does not count as private property.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Case law, please.

--Petey

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

The constitution protects your from the gov't, not necessarily a private institution. And if your school has a student rule book, I would suggest looking in there. Typically, private schools have a set list of rules some of include random locker searches, random computer searches, and other things as such. The program AIM Sniffer is perfectly legal. It is their internet connection, you are just borrowing it in a sense. Plus, if there exists a rule that says they can randomly search your computer/network, they will win. I would really consider going over the rule book and if they don't list that they can randomly have searches, question the administration.

Just some thoughts, interesting point though

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Once you walk onto a public school campus, you basically give yourself up to be searched. They can search your back pack if they want to without consent. Thus, this is perfectly legal, unless you were at a private school. In which case I am sure that in the student rule book there is a small messege that says something along the lines of "we reserve the right to search any student or students belongs at anytime." This is for situations just like this. Though I don't agree to sacrifice freedoms for security (cough patriotact cough) I do believe that when it is drawn out in such a way that the person is willingly going to school and knows a possible search could occur, then no constitutional right has been infracted upon.

Again, just some thoughts...

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

The outside of your car is not private property. In addition, if you are drugging up in your car and a police officer sees you doing this, they can extract your from the vehicle, search you, and search the car. This is because of probable cause. If an officer of the law believes someone is doing something illegal or that someone is in direct danger, they can break the fourth amendment. If at a later point it is determined that the officer did not have probable cause, anything they found while searching you or your property cannot be used as evidence against you.

More thoughts

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

No...you do not give yourself up to be searched. I would not let anyone at school search me unless they had probable cause, which they would never have. Schools push the limit when it comes to infringing on student's rights.

If the officer believes you are doing something illegal and has probable cause he can search you and/or your vehicle. If someone is in imminent danger, that is probable cause enough to search, meaning that the cop would not be breaking the fourth amendment. There is absolutely no reason for anyone to act against any of the amendments. There are a few exceptions, like felons who lose their rights when they are convicted.

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

Re: Constitutional Rights at school?
 

In the state of CA, I believe you do give up your 4th amendment, but I am not positive. However, in a private school they can search you by virtue of the fact "they are not the gov't," which is what the contstitution protects you from. Plus, they are a private instituion on private property, not public property.

Thanks for listening